10 Basic Graphic Design Rules for Web Designers

By Iggy Ko | 5 comments | Roundups

Tweet

The main goal of any Website is communication. Great communication through pictures, words or overall layout of your website is very important and will help you deliver the information in a successful manner.

Firstly, a designer is that person who succeeds in transmitting information properly and has great communication skills using words and graphics. A graphic/web designer must follow some basic rules in order to create web pages that look good and deliver the right message.

1. Use high quality images. A single great image will do more rather than three mediocre ones, so choose carefully the best images that goes with the message. Here’s a useful  list with 10 Sources for Stock Photos.

2. Be bold! Create websites that stand out from the crowd and are memorable for the customers and readers. Check out these 10 Websites with Inspiring Backgrounds.

3. Design with a purpose. Every element on a web page needs to be designed with a purpose. It always has to be a reason for creating any element on the website. “I like it” is not really a reason so think about what kind a message do you want that element to deliver. Anything that doesn’t contribute to the message is not worth having in your design.

4. Simple is better. Simple designs have a greater impact rather than complicated ones. A one- or two-column layout is much better than a multiple column design.

5. Choose fonts wisely! Typography is a very important part of a design. Especially in web design, fonts must always have the right size as your visitors must never struggle to decipher your page.

6. Choose graphics over text. Images tend to deliver the message better than text as most people won’t read a page at a first glance so the image plays a very important and decisive role. Charts,  tables or graphs are easier to grasp quickly than a block of text. Always remember that readers are in a hurry and want to find out the information as quickly as possible. Here are  15 Beautiful Examples Of Infographics For Your Inspiration

7. Enhance the important parts of a page. It is very important to make the important pieces of information obvious. The reader must know what your website is about in the first couple of seconds. Use styled heading tags and images in order to highlight important features.

8. Organize! An organized website is very important not only because the reader can find out the information he needs very quickly but also because this way your website will attract more traffic. An optimized website is very important, so organize your content, add tags and categories in order to make it more user-friendly.

9. Use white space wisely. You don’t have to fill every inch of white space on your website. Great designs contain well-planned white space which can help you highlight important points. Be careful because it is a thin line between too much blank space and not enough

10. Summarize! Readers are more likely to read short sentences, paragraphs, and articles written in a friendly manner. Organize your text and break it into columns or large blocks, with bullet points and subheads. This way you’ll make sure that the information is delivered properly. Don’t create large articles with lots of information which are not organized. Summarize and deliver the most important parts of your message first!